Labor Day weekend is filled with plenty of events, including county fairs, festivals, concerts and flea markets.
Pizza on the Farm can be added to that list as well.
Schairer’s Autumn Acres will host that event from 3-8 p.m. Aug. 30 at its new location, 154 U.S. Highway 45, Birnamwood.
Karen Schairer is organizing Pizza on the Farm, which is being held three weeks before Schairer’s Autumn Acres officially opens for the fall season on Sept. 20.
“Since we’re moving to the new place, we wanted to give people a chance to come to the farm and check it out before we have our fall opener,” she said. “We thought, why not try Pizza on the Farm to get our customers acquainted with the new place? This is a new event for us. It’s just a PR thing to let people know, ‘Hey, we’re not over at our old location anymore.’”
A traveling pizza business based in Antigo will cook pizzas onsite in a wood-fired oven.
“We’ll have Stoked Pizza Co. coming in to do the pizza,” Schairer said. “They’re handmade with artisan flour.”
A 14-inch pizza will be available for $17, and visitors will have several toppings to choose from.
“We’ll provide drinks,” Schairer said. “We’ll have our wine bin open with Munson Bridge Wine, and we’ll be selling soda, water and apple cider floats. We’ll also have our fry wagon, where I do deep-fried cheese curds and butterfly fries.”
Once the fall season opens in September, visitors to the farm can check out a corn maze, pumpkin patch, wagon rides and petting zoo.
Don’t expect to see that during Pizza on the Farm, however.
“We’re not going to have our fall stuff open for Pizza on the Farm,” Schairer said. “This is basically just to get acquainted with the new place. People are going to come and want to do the corn maze. Nope, it’s not ready. They can see the pumpkins, but we’re not going to be picking them. I want to save our fall stuff for our fall opener.”
Schairer’s Autumn Acres was held at a different location for more than a decade and would draw up to 400 visitors a day.
“We outgrew our old barn, and it needs some foundation work and a new roof,” Schairer said. “We decided to shift gears. The greenhouse and market stand is there. It’s all going to be in one spot.”
Schairer knows there’s going to be plenty of traffic during the weekend heading north on Highway 45. If things go well, Pizza on the Farm might be held again down the road.
“We’ll see how it goes and how the response is,” she said. “We’re definitely open to doing that. The new location opens up more opportunities for me. Being more visible, that’s going to be different for us. People will stop in because they see it. The old place was very quiet, very hidden. The new place, not so much.”
Schairer’s Autumn Acres will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays from Sept. 20 to Oct. 31.
Scheduled events include live music; horse-drawn wagon rides, and an apple fest and craft show weekend.
A trick-or-treat corn maze is planned from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 18, and a pumpkin stroll with more than 100 carved pumpkins on a lighted corn maze trail will be held from 6-9 p.m. Oct. 24-25.
A full schedule of events can be found on the Schairer’s Autumn Acres website, www.schairersautumnacres.com, as well as its Facebook page.
“We advertise it as fall family fun for everyone,” Schairer said. “We have a little bit of everything for everyone when we open in the fall. It’s a new place, but the same great fall family fun. People just like to explore the farm on a nice fall day.”
